Penguin Group

Number-one New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts delivers an extraordinary new trilogy — an epic tale that breaks down the boundaries between reality and the otherworldly, while forging together the passions of the men and women caught in a battle for the fate of humanity... In the last days of high summer, with lightning striking blue in a black sky, the sorcerer stood on a high cliff overlooking the raging sea… Belting out his grief into the storm, Hoyt Mac Cionaoith rails against the evil that has torn his twin brother from their family’s embrace. Her name is Lilith. Existing for thousands of years, she has lured countless men to an immortal doom with her soul-stealing kiss. But now, this woman known as vampire will stop at nothing until she rules this world — and those beyond it… Hoyt is no match for the dark siren. But his powers come from the goddess Morrigan, and it is through her that he will get his chance at vengeance. At Morrigan’s charge, he must gather five others to form a ring of power strong enough to overcome Lilith. A circle of six: himself, the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the one of many forms, and the one he’s lost. And it is in this circle, hundreds of years in the future, where Hoyt will learn how strong his spirit — and his heart — have become…

For Fox, Caleb, Gage and the other residents of Hawkins Hollow, the number seven portends doom—ever since, as boys, they freed a demon trapped for centuries when their blood spilled upon The Pagan Stone... Their innocent bonding ritual led to seven days of madness, every seven years. And now, as the dreaded seventh month looms before them, the men can feel the storm brewing. Already they are plagued by visions of death and destruction. But this year, they are better prepared, joined in their battle by three women who have come to The Hollow. Layla, Quinn, and Cybil are somehow connected to the demon, just as the men are connected to the force that trapped it. Since that day at The Pagan Stone, town lawyer Fox has been able to see into others’ minds, a talent he shares with Layla. He must earn her trust, because their link will help fight the darkness that threatens to engulf the town. But Layla is having trouble coming to terms with her newfound ability—and this intimate connection to Fox. She knows that once she opens her mind, she’ll have no defenses against the desire that threatens to consume them both...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of «Blood Brothers» and «The Hollow» — the conclusion to the electrifying trilogy of three men and three women who join forces — and hearts — to battle the ultimate evil.

Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when an unstable man broke into her family's home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she's Savannah's top hostage negotiator, defusing powderkeg situations with a talent for knowing when to give in-and when to jump in and take action. It's satisfying work-and sometimes those skills come in handy at home dealing with her agoraphobic mother, still traumatized by the break-in after all these years, and her precocious seven-year-old, Carly. It's exactly that heady combination of steely courage and sensitivity that first attracts Duncan Swift to Phoebe. After observing her coax one of his employees down from a roof ledge, he is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. She's used to working solo, but Phoebe's discovering that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm's length. And when she's grabbed by a man who throws a hood over her head and brutally assaults her-in her own precinct house-Phoebe can't help but be deeply shaken. Then threatening messages show up on her doorstep, and she's not just alarmed but frustrated. How do you go face-to-face with an opponent who refuses to look you in the eye? Now, with Duncan backing her up every step of the way, she must establish contact with the faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage to fear... before she becomes the final showdown.

The Blood books center around three main characters: Vicki Nelson, a homicide cop turned private detective, her former partner Mike Celluci, who is still on the force, and vampire Henry Fitzroy, who is the illegitimate son of Henry VIII and makes his living as a writer of bodice rippers. Not only are the three of them caught in a love triangle, but they are, time and again, involved in mysteries with a supernatural slant — from demons, to werewolves, to mummies — and inevitably must join forces to solve crimes and defeat supernatural enemies. Now all of Tanya Huff's short stories about Henry, Vicki, and Mike are being released in this collection entitled «Blood Bank». As an added bonus for fans of the TV series, «Blood Bank» includes the actual screenplay for «Stone Cold», the episode Tanya herself wrote for the «Blood Ties» series along with a special introduction by Tanya, detailing her own experiences with the show.

Oscar is a sweet but overweight sci-fi obsessed introvert who — from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister — dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R.Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fuku — a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, following them on their epic journey from New Jersey to Washington Heights and back to Santo Domingo. Encapsulating Dominican American history, Oscar's story opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere — and risk it all-in the name of love.

The history of the Second World War, with its horrible twists and turns, is so well known that the major events and their outcomes have taken on a sort of inevitability. Ian Kershaw's extraordinarily though-provoking and gripping new book, Fateful Choices, demolishes any such sense of inevitability. It dramatises brilliantly and distressingly events that between them could have resulted in disaster or victory — either for the Allies or for the Axis.

He is the only world leader to have outlasted nine US presidents, has survived over 600 assassination attempts and remains one of the twentieth century's most controversial figures. Here Castro tells his story in full for the first time, speaking openly about everything from his parents and earliest influences to his imprisonment, guerrilla war and the Cuban revolution and on to the Bay of Pigs, the missile crisis and his relationship with Che Guevara. He also remembers the people he knew, from John F. Kennedy to Ernest Hemingway. Whatever your views on Castro are, this is an essential record of an incredible life — and even more extraordinary times.

Born on a train in Stalin's Russia, Rudolf Nureyev was ballet's first pop icon. No other dancer of our time has generated the same excitement — both on and off stage. Nureyev's achievements and conquests became legendary: he rose out of Tatar peasant poverty to become the Kirov's thrilling maverick star; slept with his beloved mentor's wife; defected to the West in 1961; sparked Rudimania across the globe; gave his rabid sexuality full reign; established the most rhapsodic partnership in dance history with the middle-aged Margot Fonteyn; reinvented male technique; gatecrashed modern dance; moulded new stars; and, staged Russia's unknown ballet masterpieces in the West. Julie Kavanagh's uncompromising and magnificent biography, ten years in the making, is a brilliant tribute to a superstar the world can never forget.

1995, Scotland — The prison of Cornton Vale. Laura Brannigan is in jail for murder. For two years she's been battling for justic — insisting that she didn't kill her best friend, Jackie. Yet with her spirits at their lowest ebb, she receives a letter that takes her back to a different time and memory of an old love ...Twenty years ago was a heady time for Laura: she'd escaped an abusive home and together with new best friend Jackie she'd made a fresh start. The pair had sworn to be sisters for ever. And Stuart had come into their lives — giving Laura a brilliant summer of love. So what went wrong in the intervening years? And why is Stuart writing to Laura now? Does he have faith in her innocence? And can he help free Laura from prison — and her past?

The First World War was the overwhelming disaster from which everything else in the twentieth century stemmed. Fourteen million combatants died, a further twenty million were wounded, four empires were destroyed and even the victors' empires were fatally damaged. The sheer complexity and scale of the war have encouraged historians to write books on a similar scale. But now Norman Stone, one of Britain's greatest historians, has achieved the almost impossible task of writing a terse, brilliantly written, opinionated and witty short history of the conflict. In only 140 pages he distils a lifetime of teaching, arguing and thinking into what will be one of the most talked about history books of years to come.

Drawing on a huge range of sources — letters, memoirs, conversations — Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers — whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends — or to inform on them.

This is William Boyd's third volume of short stories following his acclaimed collections «On the Yankee Station» (1981) and «The Destiny of Nathalie X» (1995). Described as «the finest storyteller of his generation», Boyd shows his mastery of the form as these stories range widely through time and space. In a brilliant array of styles and narratives we move from 1930s Germany to Los Angeles in the Second World War, from contemporary Oxford to 19th century Russia. Whether in London or Amsterdam. Eastbourne or a Normandy village these stories explore and expose the fraught, funny, absurd, poignant and lovelorn lives of their many and varied characters.

Fashion may be fabulous, but what price true luxury? With incredible access to the glamorous world of the luxury brand, Deluxe goes deep inside the workings of today’s world of profit margins and market share to discover the fate of real luxury. From the importance of fashion owners, to red carpet stars and the seasonal ‘must-have’ handbags, Dana Thomas shows how far illustrious houses have moved from their roots. Thomas witnesses how these ‘luxury’ handbags are no longer one in a million, discovers why luxury brand clothing doesn’t last as long, and finds out just who is making your perfume. From terrifying raids on the Chinese sweat shops to the daunting chic of Paris workshops, from the handcrafting and economics of early-twentieth century designers to the violent truth behind the ‘harmless’ fakes, Deluxe goes deep into the world of extravagance, and asks: where can true luxury go now?

Jonathan Coe's widely acclaimed novel is set in the 1970s against a distant backdrop of strikes, terrorist attacks and growing racial tension. A group of young friends inherit the editorship of their school magazine and begin to put their own distinctive spin onto events in the wider world. A zestful comedy of personal and social upheaval, The Rotters' Club captures a fateful moment in British politics — the collapse of 'Old Labour' — and imagines its impact on the topsy-turvy world of the bemused teenager: a world in which a lost pair of swimming trunks can be just as devastating as an IRA bomb.

At the heart of this sprawling, dizzying debut from a quirky, assured Australian writer are two men: Jasper Dean, a judgmental but forgiving son, and Martin, his brilliant but dysfunctional father. Jasper, in an Australian prison in his early 20s, scribbles out the story of their picaresque adventures, noting cryptically early on that [m]y father's body will never be found. As he tells it, Jasper has been uneasily bonded to his father through thick and thin, which includes Martin's stint managing a squalid strip club during Jasper's adolescence; an Australian outback home literally hidden within impenetrable mazes; Martin's ill-fated scheme to make every Australian a millionaire; and a feverish odyssey through Thailand's menacing jungles. Toltz's exuberant, looping narrative—thick with his characters' outsized longings and with their crazy arguments—sometimes blows past plot entirely, but comic drive and Toltz's far-out imagination carry the epic story, which puts the two (and Martin's own nemesis, his outlaw brother, Terry) on an irreverent roller-coaster ride from obscurity to infamy. Comparisons to Special Topics in Calamity Physics are likely, but this nutty tour de force has a more tender, more worldly spin.

Guy Crouchback is now attached to a commando unit undergoing training on the Hebridean isle of Mugg, where the whisky flows freely and HM forces have to show respect for the laird. But the comedy of Mugg is followed by the bitterness of Crete.

A man of devilish charm and enterprising spirit, Dougal Douglas is employed to revitalize the ailing firm of Meadows, Meade & Grindley. He succeeds, but not quite in the way his employer intended. Strange things begin to happen as Dougal exerts an uncanny influence on the inhabitants of Peckham Rye and brings lies, tears, blackmail and even murder into the lives of all he meets, from Miss Merle Coverdale, head of the typing pool, to Beauty, the resident femme fatale, and even Mr Druce, the unsuspecting Managing Director himself.

An intoxicating yet sensitive novel about the sexual experiences of ten couples from Tarbox, New England. Well-to-do, sociable, articulate but dangerously unfulfilled; they play word games in the evening and adultery all year round.

Sally is big, blonde and pampered. She’s married to Richard. But she loves Jerry. Jerry loves Sally in return, but he’s also still in love with his wife Ruth. Who’s been sleeping with Richard... As a hot, feverish summer of snatched weekends, secret phone calls and illicit lovemaking on the beach comes to a head, it turns out everyone knows more than they’ve been letting on. And that no one knows quite when to stop.

Written when Mishima was only twentysix, «Forbidden Colors» is a depiction of a male homosexual relationship, in which a rich older man buys the love of a young man who is stunningly handsome but who lacks the ability to love. As in Mann's «Death in Venice», the older man's longing for the beauty of youth is associated with aestheticism and death.

In this funny, nightmarish masterpiece of imaginative excess, grotesque characters engage in acts of violent one-upmanship, boundless riches mangle a corner of Africa into a Bacchanalian utopia, and technology, flesh and violence fuse with and undo each other. A fragmentary, freewheeling novel, it sees wild boys engage in vigorous, ritualistic sex and drug taking, as well as pranksterish guerrilla warfare and open combat with a confused and outmatched army. «The Wild Boys» shows why Burroughs is a writer unlike any other, able to make captivating the explicit and horrific.

Full grown with a long, smoke-coloured beard, requiring the services of a cane and fonder of cigars than warm milk, Benjamin Button is a very curious baby indeed. And, as Benjamin becomes increasingly youthful with the passing years, his family wonders why he persists in the embarrassing folly of living in reverse. In this imaginative fable of ageing and the other stories collected here – including ‘The Cut-Glass Bowl’ in which an ill-meant gift haunts a family’s misfortunes, ‘The Four Fists’ where a man’s life shaped by a series of punches to his face, and the revelry, mobs and anguish of ‘May Day’ – F. Scott Fitzgerald displays his unmatched gift as a writer of short stories.

Roald Dahl's life was as bizarre, exciting and funny as the stories he wrote, and here is the whole of his own extraordinary autobiography in one volume. With a new Quentin Blake cover and a whole new end section of fascinating facts about Roald Dahl.